September 26, 2009

People who pose for a lot of pictures — successfully — develop a natural-looking, reflexive smile. Don't mock it. It's very useful. I went through most of my life feeling awkward doing photographs as if it was phony to smile when it wasn't backed up by genuine happiness or amusement. You don't have time to summon up real feeling or its simulacrum. You're not filming an Oscar performance. Just do that winning, automatic smile for the camera and save your worries about real human feeling for less artificial encounters.

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."

Here is what France's Premier says about Obama--an item ignored by American mainstream media.

Sarkozy: “We live in the real world, not the virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions.”

. . . .

“President Obama dreams of a world without weapons … but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.“Iran since 2005 has flouted five security council resolutions. North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993.“I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community? More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map,” he continued, referring to Israel.The sharp-tongued French leader even implied that Mr Obama’s resolution 1887 had used up valuable diplomatic energy.“If we have courage to impose sanctions together it will lend viability to our commitment to reduce our own weapons and to making a world without nuke weapons,” he said.Mr Sarkozy has previously called the US president’s disarmament crusade “naive.”

I never realized that some people do this, until I had been with my SO for awhile. She had worked as a model to put herself through college, and has a photographic smile that she can turn on and off on command. Like she was posing for a photograph, which is where I am sure she learned it. And it is an extremely good one.

Looking at her pictures back then, they had that automatic smile, but she somehow looked innocent. Now, it is with the confidence of a beautiful woman who knows that when she puts that smile on in public, she will be the center of attraction.

So, of course, I get a lot of unposed shots of her, which she immediately deletes when she can - but by now, I have saved the photos to a hard drive somewhere knowing this is going to happen before I show her the photos.

I think there is a lot of evidence that it is innate. Part of it appears to be a "harmless" display to males. In other words, a way of turning off male aggression potentially aimed in their direction. Children do it too. And, just like blond hair, women mimic children to trigger a male protective reflex to counter his aggression.

Part of why I think that it is innate is that females are naturally hairless on their faces, while males are not. This means that the adult females have lost the hair on their faces that their simian ancestors had. And the males have pretty much not, but rather, go the other way, being able to cover their faces even more thoroughly with hair than their simian ancestors did.

What all that hair on the male face does is hide emotions, while the hairlessness on women does the opposite, and, in particular here, does not cover their smiles as a non-aggression signal.

Which is why it is probably not a good thing that President Obama runs around with that fake smile on his face all the time, essentially giving off a non-aggression signal similar to the one that women provide to turn off male aggression. But, by its very nature, it is a sign of weakness. And, that is not something that we want our enemies thinking.

I enjoy reading Glenn Reynolds, but if he thinks his smile is remotely natural, he is very mistaken. In his pictures (and on PJTV) he redefines the word "wooden". I can only assume he's much better in lectures.

Which is why it is probably not a good thing that President Obama runs around with that fake smile on his face all the time, essentially giving off a non-aggression signal similar to the one that women provide to turn off male aggression. But, by its very nature, it is a sign of weakness. And, that is not something that we want our enemies thinking.

Ye-es . . . I think that's a bit of a stretch. I think people around the world have become accustomed, by now, to American politicians with plastic smiles on.